Johit eries



J. FR IER.

LACING TIP. APPLICATlON FILEDAPR. 17. 19:9.

///,S ATTORNEYJ? Patented Oct. 14, 1919.

' Jenn FRIER, or sr. Louis, MISSOURI.

LAGING-TIP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented oer-.14, 1919.

' Application filed April 17, 1919. Serial No. 290,669.

' To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN FRIER, a citizenof. the United States of America, a resident of the city of St. Louis,in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new andusefulImprovements in Lacing-Tips, of which the following is a full,clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in the sheet metal tips commonlyapplied to the ends of shoe or other laces for the pur pose offacilitating the threading of the laces through eyelets and protectingsuch ends. Lacing tips as commonly made are produced from thin sheets ofmetal, bent or wrapped around the laces, and unless some provisionis-made for connecting them to the laces, aside from merely wrappingthem .therearound, the tips are extremely liable to become detached fromthe laces after very short usage. The object of my invention is toprovide a tip providedwith a prong at one of its longitudinal edges bywhich the lacing may be pierced and around which the body of the tip isWrapped in a manner to clench the prong so that it cannotescape from theposition in which it is embeddedin the lacing, thereby effectuallypreventing separation of the tip from the lacing.

. I Figure I is an elevation of my lacing-tip applied to the endportionofa lacing.

Fig. II is a plan view of the lacing tip blank.

Fig. III is a perspective 'VlGW showing the lacing tip partially appliedto the lacing.

Fig. IV is an enlarged cross section through the lacing and the tipthereon.

Fi V is a cross section illustrating a modi ed form of wrapping with atip upon the lacing.

1n the drawings, A designates a shoe lacing which may be of any suitablematerial and which, although shown-round in cross section, may be of anyother suitable shape.

B designates the blank from which my tip is formed. l p The tipcomprises a sheet metal body 1 provided at one of its longitudinal orlateral edges with a prong which is adapted to be inserted through thelacing A at a point remote from the end of the lacing which receives thetip, the prong being preferably located near the rear end of the tipbody, as shown in the drawings.

In applying the tip blank to the lacing the prong 2 is first passedtransversely through the lacing so that its point will extend beyond thelacing to a sufficient degree to permit of its being bent backwardly andclenched onto the lacing, as seen in Fig. III. The body of the tip isthereafter wrapped tightly onto the lacing and onto itself, and duringthis wrapping operation the clenching of the prong 2 may be performeddue to the pressure of the tip body against the projecting end of theprong, or the prong may be bent into clenched posi tion previous to thewrapping operation, as may be found most desirable.

When the wrapping of the tip body around the lacing is performed ascontemplated by the illustration Fig. III, the wrapping operation is socarried out that the sheet metal body of the tip is brought first intocontact with the prong 2 at'the base of the portion of the prong whichextends beyond the tip, and thereafter extended along the prong andbeyond its point to and over lapping the edge of the tip body throughwhich the prong projects, thereby forming the structure illustrated incross section, Fig. IV. However, if desired the wrapping may be soperformed that the projecting portion of the prong 2 will be bentbackwardly relative to the direction of the tip wrapping portion, and asa result the structure shown in cross section in Fig. V will beproduced.

.-hereunto afiix my signature.

JOHN reins.

